Research In Action
Research In Action
My first exposure to rehabilitation engineering came from exposure to adaptive sports technology from a family friend. This initially led me to pursue mechanical engineering with a goal of developing accessible, assistive technology, like hand bikes. This interest in applying engineering technology to human problems led me to CHOP’s Center for Injury Research and Prevention (CIRP) as part of the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program.
While at CHOP, I spent my summer working with Dr. Valentina Graci and Dr. Laura Prosser, where I helped to develop a software tool to characterize motor control impairment in children with cerebral palsy (CP). In individuals with CP, poor motor control development leads to selective motor control (SMC) impairment. SMC characterizes how well the motion of a single joint can be isolated. SMC impairment manifests in a variety of ways, including co-activation, where the opposing muscle also shows activity, synergistic movement, where multiple joints in the same limb are activated simultaneously, and mirroring, where activation is seen on both sides of the body instead of only in the target muscle. By collecting muscle activation data, our goal was to establish a new personalized tool for evaluating SMC.
Guiding Factors for Tool Design
Several key considerations guided the development of this new methodological approach:
- Improved precision: Current tools lack high precision in characterizing impairment and not all measurement tools involve muscle activation data, making it difficult to quantify the exact degree of SMC function.
- Sensitivity to change: Current approaches used in measuring SMC impairment are not sensitive to change, making it difficult to track the progress of an individual and measure treatment outcomes. A more precise tool that can also track changes over time allows for earlier intervention and better outcomes.
- Target age group: We were specifically interested in a tool for young children, as SMC continues to change during early childhood and early intervention may be more effective due to rapid brain plasticity.
Applying Human-Centered Design
Designing a comprehensive collection process for young children can be challenging, particularly when complex instructions are involved. We developed a game to make data collection more intuitive and interactive, with a strong focus on making the biofeedback game experience child-friendly, engaging, and interesting. This process introduced me to the area of human-centered design.
For example, we applied the concept of feedback visuals to the design of our custom in-game avatars. Feedback visuals refers to a visual cue (like animations, colors, or progress bars) that communicates how the system is responding to a user's input or behavior. In our game, the upward motion of a child lifting her leg to the side prompted a cat on-screen to jump upward with the measured force to retrieve a food target, whereas the downward motion of knee flexion triggered a parrot to dive down and retrieve a coconut from a tree. Integrating these cues into the game itself improved data quality and user experience. Although I had studied design before coming to CHOP, this was my first time applying user-centered design in a clinical setting. This experience became a key takeaway that has influenced my work in various ways since then.
Transferring Skills to New Fields
As my interests and skills evolved, my research focus has shifted, and I have explored a variety of fields in my academic career since my REU summer experience. My academic journey has included biomedical design and manufacturing engineering in California, mechanical design for telescopes in Boston, and marine autonomy in Indiana and Spain. Throughout these different experiences, the research framework I learned at CHOP, including software design practices, hardware integration structure, and user-centered design, remains a key part of my work.
Even in fields that are not explicitly human-focused, there is always a human-driven element to engineering. In my research with water quality, for example, the motivating factor for increasing monitoring was health and safety. The research experience I gained at CHOP through the REU program shaped how I view engineering as a human-centered practice, whether in rehabilitation engineering or in other fields.
